In recent years, development of a fiber-reinforced composite material has been being promoted. The fiber-reinforced composite material is a composite material manufactured by combining fibers with a support material and has excellent material properties, that is, light weight and high strength as compared to single materials. Examples of the fiber-reinforced composite material include CMC (Ceramic Matrix Composites) and FRP (Fiber Reinforced Plastics). These CMC and FRP are used for aircraft elements and can enhance the strength and fuel efficiency.
Regarding the procedure for manufacturing a product using the fiber-reinforced composite material, a 3-dimensional shape model of the product, which is a final product, is firstly created by using design support tools such as 3-dimensional CAD (Computer Aided Design) software. Next, a fiber material is manufactured by predicting a material shape before deformation processing on the basis of the created 3-dimensional shape model; and then the deformation processing of the fiber material is actually performed, thereby manufacturing the product.
Meanwhile, products using the fiber-reinforced composite material has the drawback of high manufacturing cost. Therefore, both design technology and manufacturing technology are improved in order to further promote the widespread use of the products which use the fiber-reinforced composite material. No reference will be herein made to the manufacturing technology, but the design technology will be explained. Particularly, an explanation will be given about the design technology for a product using a thick fiber-reinforced composite material configured by placing many fiber layers, which are formed by interlacing warp yarns with weft yarns, on top of each other.
PTL 1 discloses a technology that easily and accurately predicts a surface shape of woven fabric after being woven based on an organizational chart of the woven fabric by using woven fabric CAD. Specifically speaking, PTL 1 discloses the technology used when weaving the woven fabric, to predict a force received by organizational points where the warp yarns intersect with the weft yarns, and directions and distance of movements of the organizational points by the received force, move the organizational points in the predicted directions by the predicted distance, and thereby display the surface structure of the completed woven fabric on a screen.